


The Eastern Breach

by IronPunk



Series: BoB Shorties [5]
Category: Band of Brothers
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pacific Rim Fusion, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-29
Updated: 2018-12-29
Packaged: 2019-09-26 01:30:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17132468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IronPunk/pseuds/IronPunk
Summary: Webster was a transfer from another Shatterdome and Joe has had a giant crush on him since the day he arrived. Joe hasn’t really been interested in anyone like that since the Kaiju showed up.





	The Eastern Breach

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Impala_Chick](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Impala_Chick/gifts).



> The representations of the men featured in Band of Brothers is based on characterizations in the show and not on the real men. No disrespect is intended.
> 
> I will be posting a longer fic for this soon as I have 13 pages of this so far. The Pacific Rim canon has been altered to add an Eastern Breach but other than that it follows the basic timeline and such.

There hasn’t been a Kaiju attack in days and Joe is getting more than a little antsy. It’s why he’s been leaking, for lack of a better term, emotions everywhere.  Normally Joe and Ron stay out of each other’s feelings and memories outside of the Jaeger. It’s why they’ve always worked so well together. They can feel it but they ignore it for the most part but there are certain things that bleed through no matter how much they repress it.

Joe’s giant crush on Webster falls under this category. Joe is sure that Ron knows about Web even if the other man would never bring it up directly. Instead, Ron’s gotten fiercely protective of his friend so probably Ron has misinterpreted Joe’s fee… intentions towards Web as anger.

Joe isn't going to correct him until he has to. Ron is fiercely protective of Webster and Lipton and Joe needs all of his organs to stay inside his body.

At lunch Joe catches himself staring at Web when he waves at their table. He knows that Web is waving at Ron, but part of him still skips a beat. Traitorous fucking body.

“He’s looking over here because I waved,” Ron says suddenly. “Knock it off.”

Joe startles, moving his eyes away from Web’s face. “I hate when you do that,” he grumbles.

Ron just glares at his sandwich.

“I don’t hate him,” he says. 

“Sure,” Ron says. He’s still glaring though so Joe huffs.

“Just because you have two settings doesn’t mean that’s how the rest of us work,” Joe bitches.

It would be a low blow coming from anyone else, but they’ve been inside each other’s minds. Ron’s beyond getting butthurt about anything Joe says about him anymore but he did make a new engineer cry because they said he was devoid of human emotions. It's bullshit because Ron has at least one obvious emotion: rage. 

Their standoff is interrupted by Nix thumping his tray down on the table.

“I never would have become a Ranger if I would have known I’d have to get up early and workout every day.”

“It’s cute you think you had a choice,” Joe says. _Everyone_ took the tests once the first Jaeger was built. The strongest went to the schools and then the strongest pairs got Jaegers. Everything was mandatory because the Kaiju kept coming and coming. Joe was just lucky that Stacker was the one who came and told him because that man understood family. He got Joe’s mom out of San Francisco and Joe came here.

“Let me have a few delusions please,” Nix says. “I have Lip in my head all day and I’d like to be not called on my shit for at least five minutes.”

Joe feels the mental twitch from Ron when Nix mentions drifting with Lip. Ron’s a jealous little shit when it comes to Lipton even though Lip is so disgustingly infatuated with him. 

Joe bumps his leg against Ron’s in comfort anyway. Joe would rather die than admit it but it’s really nice to see people care for each other that much. It’s a good motivator to keep fighting even though Joe doesn’t really have anyone left. 

“Well you might want to go hang out with the newbies then,” Joe says. “‘Cause we already know that you’re full of shit.”

“Fair enough,” Nix says absently before chugging one of the two cups of coffee he brought over on his tray. Ron is straight up cackling. 

“Speaking of Lip,” Joe says. He nods over to where Lip is standing and talking to Winters. He can feel Ron perk up even though they just saw Lip in the hallway half an hour before.

Nixon rolls his eyes behind Ron’s back. "Dick's been on edge since we got the news from the Shatterdome."

He doesn't clarify what news. It's all anyone's been able to talk about since they heard: the kaiju would be coming faster and faster now. 

“How’re things going with your techs?” Joe asks. It’s an obvious subject change but there’s nothing they can do about the Kaiju now.  

Nix rolls his eyes again. “Harry’s a little mouthy but that’s what happens when you put one of your best friends on your team.”

Joe scoffs. “You brought him here on purpose so you don’t get to bitch.”

“He’ll bitch about anything,” Lipton interrupts. “Out loud or in his head. All the time.”

“It’s a miracle you can get anything done,” Joe says.

“Ha ha ha,” Nix laughs sarcastically. “Ha!”

“Oh wow I didn’t realize Joe was so funny,” Lip drawls.

“Right?” Joe says. “I’m going to sign up for the talent show.”

“Don’t bother Luz would win,” Nix grumbles.

Lip throws his hands up dramatically. “Well if Luz is going to be in it we may as well hand him the gold medal now.”

Joe grins. Luz and Lip are kind of best friends and Lip cannot throw shade at him to save his life. He always comes off too sincere and too proud to be even remotely mean.

It's hilarious. 

 

~~~

Webster was a transfer from another Shatterdome and Joe has had a giant crush on him since the day he arrived. Joe hasn’t really been interested in anyone like that since the Kaiju showed up.

After losing most of his family he’s not really been up to letting anyone else get close. The other Rangers know what it’s like to put yourself on the line and most of them have lost people so it’s easy for Joe to just _settle_ when he’s around them.

Web is a whole other thing.

He instantly became friends with Ron when he came to Easy Company and Ron has only made one other non-Ranger friend in the past eight years. Joe still doesn’t understand it, mostly because Web doesn’t really talk to him, since Web is really quiet too. Ron usually needs an extrovert around to get him to talk. Maybe Web and Ron like to sit in silence and glare at people together.

He’ll talk to Joe about their Jaeger, Skull Crusher, but he won’t God Damned make eye contact and flirt with Joe. Or talk about the weather or books or... It’s so infuriating when all Joe wants to do is have a chat and maybe make out.

Joe’s so frustrated it’s no wonder Ron thinks he hates Web. There’s no way he could miss it. Fuck.

It’s more than a little awkward when they have to work together on Skull Crusher. Their last time out there was a bit of a glitch in the computer system and they couldn’t afford to have that kind of shit happen while they were one of the only things between a Kaiju and the East Coast.

Ron is off trailing Lipton like an angry shadow to do something Joe does not want to know about so he’s here with Web. Alone.

It’s pretty quiet and awkward while Webster is guts deep in the Jaeger’s electronics system and Joe is in the Conn-Pod looking at the screens.

Joe isn’t really sure what Webster is looking for but he knows when he finds it because something clicks and the screen has a blip of green flashing on it. He also hears Webster’s quiet “yes!” in his ear. It’s kind of embarrassing how endearing it is.

“All set!” Webster says through the communicator. “At least until we can get Ron in here to test it with you.”

“Great,” Joe says stupidly. Web must think he’s a total idiot. “Thanks.”

Joe thinks that’s the end of it. He relaxes into the console and lets himself have a breather.

“Joe?” Web says after a few minutes of silence.

Joe startles because that voice isn’t on the comm it’s in the space behind him.

“Yeah?”

“Did the light turn on?”

“Yeah,” Joe says. He tries not to sound disappointed. “Right there.”

“Ok good,” Webster says brightly. “Should be fixed but we'll need to have you and Ron test it out.”

“Sure,” Joe says. He wills himself to say  _anything_ to make this less awkward but it's just not happening. Joe has the tendency to be a sarcastic little shit and he doesn't know how to be that around Web without scaring him off. 

~~~

There's a god damned Kaiju attack while Joe and Ron are grounded. Winter's won't let them go out with a glitch in their system and Joe feels helpless.

He wonders idly if this is what the rest of the world feels like watching them go out for battle.

He heads to Ron's room. There's no way he's not antsy about this too. He'd understand.

When he gets to Ron's room and knocks he realizes he's made a mistake. Webster is already inside lounging on one of Ron's back-breaking chairs. He looks good.

“Joe,” Ron says. He's not surprised to see Joe.

“Didn't realize you had company,” Joe says.

“Do you want to come in?” Ron asks.

“Nah,” Joe says, forcing his voice to sound calm. “It can wait. Don't worry about it.”

He hopes Ron can't feel what he's feeling right now. He's jealous of both of them. He wishes he could be closer to Ron and he doesn't understand why Webster never talks to him. 

Joe's become this necessary evil for them to deal with because the stupid drift compatibility test said they had to work together. It’s depressing how alone he really is. 

He heads down to K-Science and hopes Luz is in his lab.

Turns out he's in luck. Luz isn't hands deep in guts when he gets there. Instead, he's sitting at his workstation with his head in his hands.

Joe is about to turn and leave Luz to what is clearly a private moment when Luz looks up.

There is half a second where Luz puts on a happy face before he realizes it's Joe. Joe is strangely honored by that.

“I have a bottle of whiskey in my room,” Luz says quietly.

“Not in the lab?”

“No way in hell I’m drinking near Kaiju blue.”

“Who knew you’d be capable of common sense?” he jokes.

“The academy apparently,” Luz says dryly.

“Shocking.”

Luz shrugs. “Shall we?"

~~~

He’s surprised when Webster joins them for dinner a few days after the Kaiju attacked. Usually, it’s just Joe, Ron, Lipton, and Nix. It’s impossible to separate Lip and Ron and Nix tends to go wherever his drift partner goes.

Joe’s running late to dinner because of a training session that went too long. He hates being late because it means he gets the last pick of food, but today it also means he’s completely thrown off by Webster’s presence.

Webster has never sat with them before and he’s sure Ron would have given him a heads up if he hadn’t stumbled into dinner twenty minutes late. If only so Ron could threaten him to be nice.

“Good you’re here,” Webster says when Joe gets to the table.

Joe’s brain stutters and he has to force himself to sit down at the table next to Ron. He knows he’s kind of staring but Web looks so determined to talk to him. 

“I need you and Ron in the Conn-Pod to test out the changes I made.”

He has to force himself not to sigh in disappointment. “Ok.”

He doesn’t even really hear the conversation after that. He's finally gotten the chance to be around Web and it hasn't changed anything between them.

Ron keeps sending him weird looks but doesn't say anything. To be honest it’s kind of unnerving and Joe doesn’t know what Ron is thinking. He doesn’t know if he event  _ wants _ to know. 

He might end up in a ditch or he might end up in a terrifying heart to heart. You never knew with Ron. 

  
~~~

 

After dinner Web forces them into the Jaeger to test out his fix. 

Everything is going normal until they initiate the neural handshake. That's when Joe is flooded with images of Webster through Ron's eyes. 

He sees flashes of Webster laughing or bumping shoulders with Ron or with his hands inside the Jaeger's parts. He sees Webster the way he is around Ron. Soft but still salty and weird. 

“I don't hate him,” Joe says stupidly. 

“Never said you did,” Ron says. 

“The drift says otherwise,” Joe grouses. He’s still thrown off by the drift experience. It was almost too much. He knows too much about someone he has barely talked to and he doesn’t know how to process it. 


End file.
